to focus in school and succeed academically. Although Percy tries his best to overcome his disorders, he cannot prevent being expelled from several schools.

On Percy's field trip to the museum, his math teacher, Mrs. Dobbs, reveals herself as a Fury and attacks him. Mr. Brunner throws Percy a pen, which turns into a sword, and he vaporizes Mrs. Dobbs. Following the incident, Mr. Brunner and Grover and refuse to acknowledge Mrs. Dobbs's existence. Later on, Percy eavesdrops on Mr. Brunner and Grover speaking about the incident, and Percy feels like he cannot trust his best friend, who is apparently hiding something. Percy responds to this challenge by remaining aloof and leaving Grover behind to visit his mother.

The most significant challenge that Percy faces at the beginning of the story is surviving a Minotaur attack and dealing with the loss of his mother. Percy is not able to save his mother but manages to kill the monster by stabbing it with its broken horn. Once Percy arrives at Camp Half-Blood, he finds it challenging to accept the truth about his identity and the reality that Greek gods exist. He also comes into conflict with Clarisse, who is one of Ares's children. Percy responds by embracing his identity and defending himself against Clarisse and the members of her cabin.

In "I Play Pinochle With a Horse," Percy Jackson faces adapting to Camp Half-Blood, dealing with the supposed death of his mother, and accepting a fantastic set of beliefs.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief explores Percy Jackson's journey to find his roots and live within the society of the Greek gods, demigods, and other mythical characters. In Chapter 5, "I Play Pinochle with a Horse," Percy has just de-horned the minotaur and wakes injured, being nursed back to health by a girl who is later revealed to be Annabeth. 

When he leaves the clinic, he thinks of his mother and mourns her. (Though she's not dead, he believes she is at this point.) The beauty of the camp contrasts with the desolate feeling he has at the loss of his mother. But things happen quickly and Percy faces his second challenge.

Percy didn't know Camp Half-Blood existed. He wanders the camp, watching the kids do typical camp things. He has a difficult time understanding why he's there and what's going on. Instead of receding into a panic, he shows bravery as he continues on with Grover and then meets Chiron and Mr. D.

Percy's last challenge is accepting what Mr. D and Chiron tell him. Mr. D casually discusses the society of Greek gods and demi-gods as he plays pinochle. After he leaves, Chiron explains the situation more clearly. He points out elements of the Greek pantheon which appear in America, where the gods and goddesses now reside. Percy is disbelieving, but it explains everything that's happened to him recently which helps him not dismiss it outright. At the end of the chapter, Percy finds out that Chiron is a centaur. 

By the end of Chapter 4 of Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief, first book of the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series, Percy has just successfully battled the Minotaur. Though his mother has disappeared in a flash of light, Percy has also successfully rescued Grover by dragging him into the woods to hide. In Chapter 5, Percy wakes up after having battled the Minotaur and doesn't know where he is. He is soon told that he is at Camp Half-Blood; that the Greek gods of mythology truly exist; that he himself is a demigod, or half-blood; and that he has to remain at Camp Half-Blood or else face more monsters. All of these revelations plus his new surroundings present Percy with plenty of new challenges.
One of his challenges is accepting Greek mythology as true. After hearing Annabeth talk about recently visiting the gods on Mount Olympus by riding the special elevator of the Empire State Building to the 600th floor and describing the quarrel between the gods she had witnessed, Percy feels very overwhelmed. As he explains to Luke back in Cabin 11, "I don't belong here ... I don't even believe in gods."

A second challenge he must face is bullies, just like the bullies he has had to face at all of his new school. This time the bully is named Clarisse, and she's the daughter of Ares, the god of war. As a prank, Clarisse drags Percy into the girls' bathroom. But when she does, Percy feels "a tug in the pit of [his] stomach," and as he has this feeling, water shoots out of the toilets and showers, combating Clarisse and her friends with water, driving them out of the bathroom.

In chapter 6 of The Lighting Thief, entitled "I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom," Percy Jackson faces a number of challenges as he becomes more familiar with the workings of Camp Half-Blood. As Chiron shows him around the grounds, Percy gets "the distinct impression [he] was being watched" by something in the attic of the farmhouse. Chiron creatively shrugs off Percy's concern, and they continue their tour. As they walk, Chiron and Percy talk of Percy's trip to the grounds, and the ways in which Grover failed as a keeper. Percy wants to come to Grover's defense, but he feels guilty, thinking that none of the trouble would have happened "[i]f [Percy] hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station." Percy faces not only the stress of being the new kid in a new place, but also the weight of his responsibility, at least in part, for Grover's current situation.

Further, after Percy and Annabeth are reunited, he gets to the cabins and begins to understand the set up of the dorms. At this point he is again faced with the issues presented by his absent father. Annabeth explains that he does not belong to a cabin yet because the identity of his father is unknown. Percy claims that his father is dead, at which time Annabeth presents new information about Percy's family. She tells him that he "would not be here if [he] wasn't one of us," meaning that he, too, is a half-blood, or demihuman. She explains that a lot of the issues he faced in life, such as his dyslexia and ADHD, are all due to his lineage. At this point, Percy begins to face the true gravity of the situation. He is part of something much bigger than he ever expected, and the realization places even more of a burden onto him. Shortly after, he faces an altercation with Clarisse, the outcome of which complicates matters even further, and makes him stand out as one of her major targets.

The biggest problem that Percy faces is the fact that he is a new kid at Camp Half-Blood, the camp where half-bloods (kids with one mortal parent and one parent who was one of the twelve Olympian gods) go to be trained as demigods. Not only does he have to learn the ropes, he has to face the other campers. Chiron shows Percy the grounds and tells Percy about the cabins, one for each of the twelve gods, where children of those gods lived.

Other problems stem from him being the new kid. He is placed in the cabin of Hermes, which accepts all newcomers, because he is undetermined, which means that he did not know which god was his father. That immediately sets him apart from everyone else who knows their parent already.

He also runs into a bully, Clarisse, and her lackeys. They are daughters of Ares, the war god. Clarisse drags Percy into the girls bathroom, intending to give him a swirly, but the water from the toilet shoots out, arcs over him, and hits Clarisse in the face. Water from all the other toilets and the showers soak Clarisse and her friends and force them out of the bathroom.

So despite the fact that he is at a camp for demigods, he faces the same problem that any new kid at any school or place would face.

Percy faces many challenges throughout chapter 8. The first challenge that we see is his struggle to find where he belongs in this new world. He has not yet been claimed by his father, so everyone is watching to see what happens. Percy becomes more bitter about this as time goes on:

"So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, who-ever he was, make a phone appear?"

Often, demigods specialize in a skill that is related to their immortal parent. So he begins exploring different activities such as archery (associated with Apollo) and metal working (associated with Hephaestus). He fails at everything he tries.

Eventually, he finds some success in swordplay, which is its own special challenge. His teacher is Luke, who is the best sword fighter in 300 years. Percy has never lifted a sword before, and first has to spar with Luke. Yet, in the end, he is able to disarm his teacher once, to the surprise of everyone watching. 

The most prominent challenge that Percy faces is the Greek demigod version of "Capture the Flag". He is on the team that consists of the children of Athena, Apollo, and Hermes. Luke, who is also on this team, assigns him to border patrol, which should be a fairly simple task. However, within a few minutes of the game beginning, five members of the Ares cabin come to attack him as revenge for shaming them. All are experienced fighters, and Percy is forced to defend rather than attack until he is pushed back to stand in the creek behind him. He becomes reenergized as soon as he touches the water and is able to stand his ground until his team captures the flag. 

After an incident with a hellhound, Percy is able to overcome his first challenge: he is claimed by his father, Poseidon. With his place now known, the other campers all have a newfound respect for him (although children of Ares aren't particularly happy about it). However, this does not mean his journey has ended. It has only begun.

I would say that Percy goes through two main challenges in chapter 17. The first challenge comes about halfway through the chapter. It occurs just after Barbara Walters shows her viewers a picture of Percy Jackson, stating that he is the delinquent youth causing chaos across America. Percy is then confronted by a group of rich kids with knives. They gang up on Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. Percy thinks he has things handled because he can use Riptide. Unfortunately, though, the aggressors are mortal, so Riptide doesn't help out that much. This forces Percy and the others to do the next best thing: they run. Unfortunately, they run to Crusty's Water Bed Palace. "Crusty," the owner of the store, turns out to be Procrustes, the Stretcher who once tried to kill Theseus. His goal is to get Percy and his friends to fit the beds by stretching them. Crusty manages to get Annabeth and Grover into beds and binds them in preparation for stretching. Fortunately, Percy is able to trick Crusty into a bed of his own. Percy snaps his fingers and says, "Ergo." That causes ropes to bind Crusty. Then Percy uses Riptide to cut off his head.

"I think I'll start with the top." I raised my sword.

"No money down! No interest for six months!"

I swung the sword. Crusty stopped making offers.

The main challenge that Percy and his friends, Grover and Annabeth, face is the mattress store owner, Crusty, and his plot. Crusty is short for Procrustes, which in and of itself gives us an idea of what the problem is. Procrustes was a figure in ancient Greek myth who was insistent on fitting people to a bed he had; if they were too short, he would stretch them out to fit the bed perfectly, and if they were too tall, he would cut parts of them off. This is precisely what he was doing in chapter 17 of The Lightning Thief. Grover and Annabeth were tricked into getting into some of the beds, but before Crusty could do anything to them, Percy tricked him into falling into his own trap. This is very much like what Theseus had done to Procrustes when he faced the man on his way to Athens. In the end, Grover and Annabeth were freed, and they and Percy left in safety to continue on their adventure to the Underworld.

Percy faces several challenges in chapter 21 when he arrives at Olympus with Zeus's master bolt. The first challenge Percy faces concerns winning Zeus's favor. Although Percy possesses the master bolt, Zeus is still extremely upset with him and resents his involvement in the entire ordeal. Zeus is portrayed as a stern, unforgiving god and threatens Percy several times. When Percy hints that something menacing was influencing Ares, Zeus immediately ends the conversation. He does not want to entertain the idea that Kronos is healing in Tartarus, steadily plotting to overthrow the gods.

The next challenge Percy faces concerns repairing his complicated relationship with Poseidon. Percy desperately wants to make his father proud and desires to have him back in his life. Percy is hurt that Poseidon refuses to accompany him home to see his mother and also feels awkward when Poseidon says his birth was a huge mistake. However, Poseidon offers Percy several encouraging words by saying he is proud of his accomplishments and referring to him as "a true son of the Sea God."

The third challenge Percy faces concerns defending his mother from Gabe. When Percy returns home, he recognizes that Gabe has abused his mother and thinks about killing him. Fortunately, Poseidon returned the package with Medusa's head inside, and Percy explains to his mother that she can solve all her problems by opening the box. Percy makes the mature decision to allow his mother to fight her own battles and leaves the box behind as he begins his journey to Half-Blood Hill.